Glen Haven Historic District

Glen Haven village is an intriguing example of changing times in history. From 1865-1884, the village was a stopping point for steamships needing cordwood on their way from Chicago. Complete with a blacksmith shop, general store, boat house and the Sleeping Bear Inn. The resident immigrant woodcutters found nearly everything they needed in this tiny village.

When coal replaced wood as a fuel source around 1884, David Henry Day started a successful lumber business that ran until the 1920s. As timber declined, D.H. Day established the Glen Haven Canning Company – preserving local cherries for the flourishing cherry industry.

The U.S. Lifesaving Station was built in 1901 to rescue passengers of ships in trouble in the Manitou Passage.

In 1928 the inn was rehabilitated in anticipation of an exclusive summer resort development on Alligator Hill. Garages at the inn were built to house chauffeur’s cars . Development plans were scrapped after the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. The inn was then purchased by the Warnes family catering exclusively to summer tourists.

The inn remains the best surviving example of a frontier and resort hotel in Leelanau County. Entrepreneurs rode the tourism wave by offering activities such as dune buggy rides which operated out of Glen Haven in the 1960s.

Times changed again. The dune rides and inn ceased operations in 1972 when the buildings were purchased by the National Park. For over 25 years Glen Haven sat idly in a state of slow decay. Meanwhile, the Park was working to develop restoration and interpretive plans for the village which were completed in 1994. A new era has now dawned for Glen Haven as the Park has begun to implement this plan, completing extensive restoration projects in the village, re-opening the general store and blacksmith shop to visitors. The Cannery now serves to exhibit the Park’s historic boat collection.

The Sleeping Bear Inn – matriarch of the village – awaits adaptive-reuse. Hopefully, the inn will once again accommodate visitors in the near future.